Location-aware application based quality of service (QOS) via a broadband access gateway

ABSTRACT

A system and method supporting access to multimedia information based upon user-defined quality of service criteria is disclosed. A broadband access gateway may coordinate network behavior during the transition of an access device among communication pathways having different available capacities. Adjustments in bit rates and levels of compression may be made based upon the user-defined quality of service criteria. The user may be notified when network conditions disallow support for the desired quality of service, and may choose to override selected criteria. The user-defined quality of service criteria may be stored within the gateway and associated with a user, or may be located in the access device and accessible to the gateway.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/095,188 entitled “LOCATION-AWARE APPLICATION BASED QUALITYOF SERVICE (QOS) VIA A BROADBAND ACCESS GATEWAY”, filed Mar. 30, 2005,now U.S. Pat. No. 7,283,803, which makes reference to, claims priorityto, and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.60/563,894, entitled “Method And System For Handling And BackhaulingTraffic From A Wired And/Or Wireless WAN, LAN, And/Or PAN Using ABroadband Access Gateway”, filed Apr. 16, 2004, the complete subjectmatter of each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference, inits entirety.

The present application makes reference to U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/021,294, entitled “Method And System For Extended Network AccessServices Advertising Via A Broadband Access Gateway”, filed Dec. 23,2004, the complete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference, in its entirety.

The present application also makes reference to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/039,020, entitled “Method And System For ProvidingRegistration, Authentication, And Access Via A Broadband AccessGateway”, filed Jan. 18, 2005, the complete subject matter of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

The present application also makes reference to U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/095,842, entitled “Registering Access Device MultimediaContent Via a Broadband Access Gateway”, filed Mar. 30, 2005, thecomplete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, in its entirety

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One major common problem faced by cellular and landline serviceproviders is market competition. In today's climate of competitivemarkets, cellular service providers have found that one way for them togrow market share and defend their businesses is to be proactive andform alliances, and to partner with landline service providers. Inaddition, cellular service providers seek to differentiate their serviceofferings, and to capture the largest portion of market revenue bymeeting an ever increasing demand for access to a wide range of mediaforms such as MP3 encoded audio, still and video imaging, data, instantmessaging, and email. In a similar manner, the landline serviceproviders have found that to grow market share and ward off competition,they too must be proactive and form alliances, and to partner withcellular service providers. Support for broad economical access to theseconverging forms of communication is needed to enable unfettered marketgrowth, and to support the development and use of new handheld devicesneeded to provide increasing levels of mobile multimedia communicationfunctionality.

Although the formation of alliances and partnerships between cellularservice providers and landline service providers may help to ward offcompetition, such alliances and partnerships are faced with otherproblems. For example, the erection of cellular infrastructure such ascellular towers may be an expensive venture since this may requireacquisition of real estate, whether in the form of outright purchases orthrough leasing. Cellular infrastructure also requires the establishmentof one or more expensive backbone links to handle core network traffic.Another cellular-related problem is that the cellular signals do notpenetrate and propagate in buildings such as homes and offices verywell. This is especially true with the frequencies that are typicallyutilized in the United States, which may vary between 800 MHz and 1900MHz or 1.9 GHz.

The use of digital media is growing at an extremely rapid pace. Mostconsumers today have a variety of devices that gather, store, process,generate, communicate, play back, and/or display informationelectronically, in a digital form. Examples of such devices includedigital still and video cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs),laptop and desktop personal computer (PC) systems, video cassetterecorders (VCRs), personal video recorders (PVRs), document and photoscanners, digital and high definition television sets, stereo audioequipment, and cellular phones, to name only a few. The use of portabledevices capable of exchanging digital media via a wireless communicationlink offers the consumer the opportunity to enjoy multimediaentertainment including, for example, audio and video media whiletraveling. Present day wide area communications systems such as wirelesscellular networks support limited bandwidth for transmission of data,and therefore restrain access to high-quality multimedia information.Broadband access to multimedia information, however, is spreadingquickly, and wireless broadband standard such as IEEE 802.11 can supportimproved quality of service compared with wide area wirelessalternatives such as cellular. Support for switching of consumerelectronic devices from one access path such as, for example, a cellularnetwork, to another access path such as, wireless broadband, duringmedia access is virtually non-existent. Most current cellular phonescannot access wireless broadband networks, and devices able to accesswireless broadband networks do not normally support access to data viacellular service providers.

Access to streaming (real-time) multimedia programming generallyrequires that the user be aware of the capabilities of the device beingused for access, and may require that the user specifically accessmultimedia information content that has been prepared with thecapabilities of the access device in mind. Awareness and understandingof such details exceeds the interest and fear of the unknown of themajority of consumers. This places unnecessary limits on the market forflexible, mobile multimedia information content, equipment, andservices.

Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditionalapproaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, throughcomparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention asset forth in the remainder of the present application with reference tothe drawings.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A system and method supporting access to multimedia information by aplurality of access devices using location-aware quality of servicemanagement, substantially as shown in and/or described in connectionwith at least one of the figures, as set forth more completely in theclaims.

These and other advantages, aspects, and novel features of the presentinvention, as well as details of illustrated embodiments, thereof, willbe more fully understood from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architecture of an exemplarycommunications system in which a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may be practiced.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary communicationsystem, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a portion of the communication system ofFIG. 2, showing an exemplary broadband access gateway supportinguser-defined quality of service criteria, which may correspond, forexample, to the gateway of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows exemplary quality of service setup information within adisplay area of an access device that may correspond, for example, tothe access device or wireless PDA of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary pop-up message in the display area of anaccess device that may correspond, for example, to the access device orwireless PDA of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an exemplary method of supportinglocation-based quality of service in a broadband access gateway that maycorrespond, for example, to the gateway or the router of FIGS. 1 and 2,in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of another exemplary method of supportinglocation-based quality of service in a broadband access gateway that maycorrespond, for example, to the gateway or the router of FIGS. 1 and 2,in accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Aspects of the present invention relate to the seamless merging of widearea networks, from any kind of wired and/or wireless wide areanetworks, to pockets of wired and/or wireless local area networks andpersonal area networks, which may be located in homes or otherenvironment such as an office or business. More specifically, aspects ofthe present invention relate to automatic management of the quality ofservice (QoS) provided a user accessing multimedia information content,depending upon the nature of the multimedia information, the accessdevice used for media consumption, and the communications path used bythe access device. The management of quality of service may be performedby a broadband access gateway that may permit broadband network accessvia, for example, a personal cellular microcell, a personal area network(PAN), a wired or wireless wide area network (WAN), wireless local areanetwork (WLAN) or other type of network located within a premises suchas, for example, a home, office, business, or the like. Services thatmay be available via such a broadband gateway connection include, forexample, access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN);Internet protocol (IP) phone access; extended access to commercialcellular and PCS networks such as, for example, TDMA, CDMA, and GSM; andaccess to and/or control of a variety of multimedia access devices ornetworked resources capable of providing streams of images, stillpictures, video, and audio; to name only a few. Examples of multimediainformation include streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digitaldata, text, digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video,and digitized music. The merging of these various types of networks mayenable transparent communication of all types of media between accessdevices, which may be coupled in a wired or wireless fashion to one ormore of these networks. In an embodiment of the present invention,access to services available through a wireless broadband gateway may besimplified, permitting their use by a wider group of users of accessdevices in, for example, homes, offices, and businesses.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an architecture of an exemplarycommunications system in which a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may be practiced. Referring to FIG. 1, there is showna first location 102, a second location 104, a broadband access provider(BAP) 106, public switched telephone network (PSTN) 108, a transportnetwork 110, wireless networks including CDMA network 112 and GSMnetwork 114, and access devices 126 and 128. The first location 102comprises a gateway 118 having a modem 116, a wireless interface(s)block 120, and the access devices 122, 124. The access devices 122, 124,126, 128 may comprise, for example, a mobile multimedia handset having ahigh level of functionality such as, for example, that of one or more ofa digital video or still camera, a portable audio (MP3) player, apersonal digital assistant, and a voice handset. The access devices 122,124, 126, 128 may be capable of operating using, for example, a personalarea network and/or wireless local area network compliant with, forexample, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, and/or IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband standards. The second location 104 comprises a router 130having a modem 132, and a plurality of wireless access devices. Theplurality of wireless access devices at the second location 104 maycomprise a personal computer (PC) 138, a laptop 136 and a wirelesspersonal digital assistant (PDA) 134. A peripheral such as a digitalcamera 142 may be coupled to the personal computer 138. Otherperipherals such as printers, digital scanners, speakers, and the like,which are not shown, may also be coupled to the personal computer 138and/or laptop 136. The wireless interface block 120 may comprise aplurality of interfaces such as a Bluetooth interface, an IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband interface, and any combination of an IEEE 802.11a, b, gand/or n interface.

FIG. 1 also comprises an “other broadband access provider” block 144, an“other cellular/PCS service provider” block 146, a central control andmanagement block 148, and content provider 150. The “other broadbandaccess provider block 144” may be, for example, a cable, DSL, or othertype of broadband access provider. The central control and managementblock 148 may comprise suitable logic, circuitry and/or code that may beadapted to handle content delivery and security functions such asauthentication, validation, key or certificate management, andauthorization. The central control and management block 148 may also beadapted to handle provisioning and service management. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, the central controland management block 148 may establish communications links with, forexample, the gateway 118, the broadband access provider 106, the otherbroadband access provider 144, the other cellular/PCS service provider146, the CDMA network 112, and the GSM network 114 using actual orvirtual connections.

The broadband access provider 106 may be, for example, a cable operator,telephone company, or satellite operator providing Internet access alongwith other communication services. In instances where BAP 106 is atelephone company, broadband service to locations 102, 104 may beprovided via DSL or other broadband access technology. Accordingly, themodems 116, 132 may be DSL modems. In instances where BAP 106 is a cableoperator, broadband service to locations 102, 104 may be provided viacable. Accordingly, the modems 116, 132 may be DOCSIS compliant or othertype of cable modem. Given the rapid decrease in the cost of leasedtelephone lines over the past decade or more, the connection to thelocation 102, 104 may also be T1 or T3 connections. For example, aswitch located at a central office (CO) (not shown) may be utilized tocouple a T1 or T3 connection between the second location 104 and thePSTN 108.

The gateway 118 may comprise an integrated DSL modem, cable modem orother high-speed modem that may be required for handling a connectionsuch as a T1 or T3 connection. Alternatively, the gateway 118 may becoupled to an external DSL modem, cable modem or other high-speed modemthat may be capable of handling connections such as a T1 or a T3connection. The gateway 118 may be adapted so that it has access toprotocol stack information that may be related to the GSM and/or CDMAnetworks 114, 112, respectively. The gateway 118 may also be adapted toprovide protocol support for communication with “other cellular/PCSservice provider” block 146.

Each of the CDMA and GSM networks 112, 114 may comprise a plurality ofcell sites (a/k/a cellular towers) that are located in geographicalcells within each of the networks. Within the GSM network 114, each ofthe cell sites such as, for example, cell site 114 a may comprise a basetransceiver station (BTS), and one or more base transceiver stations(BTSs) may be coupled to wireless carrier central office 114 b. Thewireless carrier central office 114 b may comprise a base stationcontroller/radio network controller (BSC/RNC) such as BSC/RNC 114 d. Oneor more base station controllers/radio network controllers (BSCs/RNCs)may be coupled to the core network 114 e, that comprises a network edgeswitch called a mobile switching center (MSC), such as MSC 114 g, and aserving GPRS support node (SGSN)/packet data serving node (PDSN) 114 f,of the GSM network 114. The mobile switching center may be coupled to,for example, the PSTN 108 via the transport network 110. As an accessdevice moves out of range of a first cell site to within range of asecond cell site, the decrease signal power received from the first cellsite and the increase in signal power received from the second cell sitecauses initiation of handoff of a call from the first cell site to thesecond cell site. In cases where there is no second cell site to handoffto, the call may be maintained by the first cell site power until it isattenuated to a threshold where it is no longer feasible to maintain thecall. At the point where the power reaches or falls below thisthreshold, the call may drop and any related call resources may berelinquished. In a home and/or office environment, it may be desirableto have a second network to which the call may be handed off to.

As an illustration, a user may be on their way home and as the userapproaches their home, the signal may fall below a minimum signal powerthreshold that is required to maintain a call. However, instead ofdropping the call, the call may be handed off to, for example, a PAN ora wireless local area network (WLAN) that may be located within theuser's home or an unlicensed wireless access system that may be locatedin the user's home. For example, with reference to FIG. 1, as accessdevice 126 migrates from the vicinity of the serving cell site 114 a inGSM network 114 towards the wireless interface 120 in the first location102, the call may be handed off from the cell site 114 a GSM network 114to the wireless interface 120 coupled to the gateway (GW) 118 at thefirst location 102. Accordingly, instead of the call being dropped, thecall has been seamlessly handed off and is now being handled by thegateway 118 via the wireless interface 120. The resulting wireless datamay then be communicated to the GSM network 114 via the broadbandconnection to the BAP 106 which is connected to the broadband wirelesslocal area network controller (BWC) 114 c.

In this illustration, the user is handed off to their PAN, WLAN, orother network located within their home. However, the user could alsohave been handed off to another network system such as a neighbor'snetwork. In any case, a gateway coupled to the wireless interface whichis providing service to the user may communicate at least a portion ofthe data to, for example, the cable or DSL BAP 106, the GSM network 114,CDMA network 112, other broadband access service provider 144, othercellular/PCS service provider 146 and central control and managementblock 148. The user may be provided with a notification that indicatesthe presence of the PAN, WLAN, or other unlicensed network. For example,an icon representative of a personal area network may be displayed onthe screen of the access device 126 once a soft or hard handoff isachieved from a serving cell site in GSM network 114 to the wirelessinterface 120 at the first location 102. A special tone or other audioalert may also be utilized to indicate that the call has switched to thewireless interface 120.

In instances where the gateway 118 detects a compatible access devicethat may be within the range of the wireless interface 120, the gateway118 may immediately advertise its available services to the accessdevice. In this regard, the gateway 118 may be adapted to transmitservice advertisements to the access device in order to alert a user ofthe access device of the types of services that are being offered by thegateway 118. Signals containing icons representative of the services maybe transmitted to and displayed on a screen of the access device and/oraudio alerts may be utilized to notify the user of these services.

In another embodiment of the invention, quality of service (QoS) mayalso be advertised by the gateway 118. For example, when a user is beingserviced by the wireless interface 120, the gateway 118 may advertisethat stereo audio is available.

Access devices may be pre-registered so that when they are within therange of the wireless interface 120, the gateway 118 may automaticallyrecognize them. For the pre-registration, an administrator of thegateway 118 at the first location 102 may register access devices thatare allowed to access the gateway 118 when they are within the range ofthe wireless interface 120. Pre-registration may be done prior to theaccess device accessing the gateway 118. During pre-registration, anadministrator or owner of the gateway 118 may enter registration orconfiguration information such as device IDs of access devices belongingto friends and/or family members into a registration database associatedwith the gateway 118. As a result, these devices will be allowed toaccess at least a portion of the services offered by the gateway 118whenever they attempt to access the gateway 118 by pressing a singlebutton, for example. Opportunistic registration permits a user of anaccess device to register with the gateway 118 automatically with littleor no effort on the part of the user. In this regard, registrationinformation may be sent to the gateway 118 from an access device duringan initial access and the gateway 118 may chose to accept or deny theregistration. The registration information may be automatically ormanually sent to the gateway 118.

In certain instances, an access device may not have been pre-registeredto access the network. In this case, one button access may be provided.A single button such as a hard coded button or software-enabled buttonon an access device may be programmed to transmit identifyinginformation from the access device to the gateway 118. The gateway 118may utilize this transmitted identifying information to grant or denyaccess to its services. For example, one button may be programmed tocontain access device identifying information related to accessing theservices provided by gateway 118 at the first location 102. The gateway118 may also be adapted to utilize digital certificates to authenticateaccess devices.

An interactive process may also be provided, whereby the gateway 118 mayprompt or request particular information, for example a password from anaccess device requiring network access. If the particular information isreceived, then access to at least some of the services provided by thegateway 118 may be granted and if not, the access to at least some ofthe gateway's services may be denied.

In another embodiment of the invention, the one button access may beprovided via software-enabled button (soft button) or hardware-enabledbutton (hard button). In this regard, the software button may bedisplayed on a screen of an access device.

A “walled garden” approach may be utilized to provide access to theservices that may be offered by a particular gateway, for example,gateway 118. Under the walled garden approach, when an access devicefirst registers or is identified, a basic set of services may beprovided by the serving gateway 118 to the access device 124. The basicservices offered may vary among each gateway. At least some of the basicservices that are provided by a gateway such as gateway 118, may beoffered without authenticating the access device 124. However, otherservices may only be offered if an access device such as access device124 is properly authenticated. These services that are offered may beservices that were advertised by the gateway 118.

In an aspect of the invention, access to additional services may begranted based on, for example, user identity, access device identity andor user input. The services offered to an access device by a gateway maybe arranged in a hierarchical structure such as a tier. For example, ina first tier, a user may be prompted to enter membership informationsuch as a member identification number. Upon authentication of themembership identification number, the first tier may provide restrictedaccess with pop-up advertisements that may not be disabled. In a secondtier, for example, a user may be prompted to enter a password. Uponauthentication of the password, second tier information may providerestricted access to gateway services without pop-up advertisements. Ina third tier, for example, entering billing information such as anaccount number or credit card or check card number may provide unlimitedand/or unrestricted access to all the services offered by a gateway. Afourth tier may provide only operating instruction and information forguests.

An administrator of the gateway may establish the type of accessprovided by the walled garden. For example, if the first location 102 isa hotspot at a Café, the provider of the gateway may establish theservice access levels or tiers that may be provided by the gateway 118.

When an access device is within the range of the gateway 118, wirelessservice is handed off from a serving cell site 114 a in the GSM network114 to the gateway 118. The access device may be authenticated by thegateway 118 and permitted to access at least some of the servicesoffered by the gateway 118. Once the access device is authenticated, atleast a portion of the information on the access device may be madeavailable as a networked resource via the gateway 118. A user of theaccess device may chose whether information on the access device may bemade available to the gateway and if so, that information which will bemade available, and that information which will be unavailable to thegateway 118. In this regard, where information is made available, thegateway 118 may maintain a list of the resources that may be availableon access devices that may be coupled to the gateway 118. For example, alist of contact information, calendar information, audio files, videofile and/or data files stored on the access device may be sent to thegateway 118.

The resources that are available on the access device may also beadvertised to other access devices that may be in communication with thegateway 118. Advertisement of the resources that may be available on anaccess device may be restricted to, for example, a list of particulardevices, a particular type of devices or to a particular user.Accordingly, a user may have to be properly authenticated prior tocertain information being made available to the user. Additionally,advertisement of the resources may cause certain icons representative ofthe resources to be displayed on other access devices. In a similarmanner, icons representative of the resources that may be available onthese other access devices may also be presented on the access device.

An access device may be provided with a welcoming screen that may allowa user of a device to sign up for either free or paid services. Once thesignup is complete, subsequent access by the user may be authenticatedby the gateway 118 utilizing the signup information. Whenever an accessdevice registers with and/or is authenticated by the gateway 118,information on the access device may be updated and/or synchronized withinformation that may be on the gateway 118.

Devices within the location of the gateway 118 may be configured toregister certain portions of their data content with the gateway 118through a gateway registration process. Once data for these devices isregistered to the gateway 118, the gateway may maintain a database,which keeps track of the data that is available, and its location.Accordingly, if the data previously stored in the database is no longeravailable, then information representative of the previously stored datamay be removed from the database. Data from devices coupled to thegateway 118 such as on laptops, CD players, digital video disk (DVD)players, TIVO, personal video recorders (PVRs), personal digitalassistants (PDAs) and other devices, may be registered with the gateway118. This data may comprise audio, video, still pictures, and/or text.

At least a portion of the registered data may be made available to othernetwork access devices via the gateway 118. In an aspect of theinvention, the gateway 118 may be adapted to maintain a searchable listof data that may be available via the gateway. In this regard, thegateway may comprise a search engine that may be utilized to locate anddistribute data that may be made available through the gateway 118. Inanother aspect of the invention, data may be made available to accessdevices via advertising by the gateway 118. Access devices may beconfigured to seek out particular data that may be of interest.Accordingly, an access device may be adapted to receive and process onlythose gateway advertisements may fit particular criteria. Thoseadvertisements that may not fit the particular criteria may be discardedor ignored.

When an access device is within the range of the gateway 118, wirelessservice may be handed off from a serving cell site 114 a in the GSMnetwork 114 to the gateway 118. The access device may be authenticatedby the gateway 118 and permitted to access at least some of the servicesoffered by the gateway 118. Once the access device is authenticated, auser of the access device may have a desire to locate a particular videopresentation. The user may access the search engine, which may have beenadvertised to the user's access device by the gateway 118. The searchengine may appear on the display of the user's access device as an icon.The user may then activate a search by selecting the search engine icon,inputting a name of the video presentation and executing the search.

In another embodiment of the invention, the gateway may be adapted toclassify information based on a given criterion. This classification mayassist with locating information based on a particular criterion. Inthis regard, a user of the access device may be presented with a list ofclassifications and may select one, which may be of interest based on aparticular criterion. This may narrow the focus of a search.

The gateway may also be utilized to facilitate seamless synchronizationof data between devices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to thegateway 118. For example, audio files located in a music folder on a PCcoupled to the gateway 118 may be synchronized with a wireless mediaplayer coupled to a hot spot in an airport while a user of the wirelessaccess media player waits to board a flight. In this regard, the gatewaymay determine what files need to be synchronized and control how thesynchronization is accomplished. The same is true for files that may bedownloaded from the PC to the wireless access media player, and forfiles that may be uploaded from the wireless access media player to thePC. Calendar and/or contact information may also be updated and/orsynchronized with a mobile multimedia handset in a similar mannerutilizing the gateway 118.

A location-aware service determines an approximate location of a networkdevice and adapts delivery of a particular service application and/orcontent according to a quality of service criterion. The delivery oflocation-aware services may be controlled by the gateway 118. Forexample, a user of an access device may request playback of an audioclip via the gateway 118. After receiving the request for playback ofthe audio clip, the gateway 118 may determine that a channel between thegateway 118 and the user's access device may only be capable ofmaintaining a reduced playback rate. As a result, instead of sending 128kbps encoded audio data, then the gateway may send 96 kbps data. Hence,in a case where the audio data was originally stored in 128 kbps sampledaudio data, then the gateway 118 may transcode the 128 kbps sampled datato 96 kbps audio data.

In another illustrative embodiment of the invention, while the GSMnetwork 114 is servicing the access device, lower compression rates maybe utilized to provide service to the access device. However, when theaccess device roams within range of the wireless interface 120 and isbeing served by the gateway 118 through wireless interface 120, highercompression rates may be utilized. For example, audio data sampled at adata rate of 64 kbps may be utilized for playback on an MP3 enabledtelephone while the phone is being serviced by a cell site 114 a in theGSM network 114. However, once the MP3 enabled telephone is within theoperating range of the wireless interface 120 and is being serviced bythe gateway 118, the gateway 118 may automatically adapt to a higherdata rate of, for example, 92 kbps or 128 kbps.

Automatic format conversion by the gateway 118 may include convertingdata from a first format to at least a second format suitable fordelivery and/or display on an access device. This may permit data thatwould otherwise be incompatible with a first access device to be playedon that first access device. For the location-aware services based onQoS, data was converted from a first format 128 kbps to a second format96 kbps to achieve and/or maintain a particular QoS, but the data typeremained the same. In this case, the audio format and/or its data typemay be different. For example, if the audio format was MP3, then afterthe conversion, the format remained WAV and/or the sampling rate mayhave decreased from 128 kbps top 96 kbps.

In conventional wired caller ID systems, a name and/or directory number(DN) of a calling party may be transferred either in-band or out-of-bandto a called party and may be displayed on the called party's caller IDdisplay when a call is answered. In these conventional systems, thecaller ID information is limited to a callers name, directory number(DN), general location and/or time of call. In wireless telephonesystems, in order to save on bandwidth, only a caller's directory numberis transferred and displayed to a calling party. However, if the callingparty's directory number and name is stored in the called party's phone,then the stored name and stored directory number will be presented on adisplay of the called party's terminal. In this case, the storeddirectory number is compared with the transferred caller's directorynumber, and if a match occurs, then a name corresponding to the matchingdirectory number is also displayed on the called party's terminal.

In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, the gateway 118 isadapted to determine the appropriate caller ID information that may bedisplayed in a called and/or calling party's caller ID. In this case,reverse caller ID information may be displayed on both a calling and acalled party's terminal by the gateway 118.

If a called and/or calling device is a mobile multimedia handset and/orlaptop, for example, contact or other personal information may bedisplayed the caller's and/or calling party's directory number. Thelevel or amount of information that may be displayed may be varied.Certain sensitive information relating to either the called or callingparty may be restricted from being displayed.

In current cellular communication systems, over the air (OTA)programming is utilized to program a cellular telephone during theprovisioning process. In some instances, cellular providers haveestablished websites that may be utilized or OTA programming. In thisregard, a cellular subscriber may access the website and enterinformation such as the assigned directory number and the electronicserial number of the cellular telephone being programmed.

In accordance with a representative embodiment of the invention, anaccess device may be registered using over the air programming via thegateway 118. A user of an access device may send access deviceinformation to the gateway 118 using, for example, a default interfacethat may be presented to and displayed on a screen of the access devicewhen the access device first enters the service area of the wirelessinterface 120. During registration, the capabilities of an access devicemay be sent to the gateway 118 and may be shared with devices that maybe coupled to the gateway 118.

Since the gateway acts as a registrar of information for all the accessdevices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to it, the gateway mayfunction as a personal digital assistant for any of these accessdevices. In an illustrative example, a first device, a first PC and asecond PC are being serviced by the gateway 118. The first access devicereceives a call and the caller ID information shows the callers name,home directory number and home address. However, the first PC containsthe business address for the caller and the second PC contains themonthly calendar information for the caller. Assume that the caller hada desire to setup a business meeting. In accordance with an aspect ofthe invention, the gateway 118 may be adapted to provide the businessaddress of the caller to the first access device and also provide thecaller's calendar to the first access device. In this manner, thenetwork centrally provides all the information necessary for schedulingthe meeting. In this example, the first PC may belong to the user of thefirst access device and the second PC may belong to the caller.

This concept may be extended to a look-up or 411 directory assistance onthe Internet. The lookup may also be location dependent. In this regard,if a user is located in Hollywood and requests a hotel location, thegateway 118 may only cause the hotels that are located in Hollywood tobe displayed to the user.

The gateway 118 may also be adapted to create profile information basedon data usage. These created profiles may be utilized to create socialnetworks for people having common interests. Accordingly, users may bepermitted to post their interests and also select those people havingsimilar interests based on the created profile. Based on the createdprofile information and the posted user interests, the gateway 118 mayalso generate a list of those people who have similar interest and alsothose users that may potentially have similar interests.

Given the capability to seamlessly operate an access device as onemigrates from outside the home into the home, it is desirable to have asingle device that may be adapted to control at least some of thedevices that may be found within the home. In addition to its normalvoice or data communication operating mode, an access device may beconfigured to operate as a universal remote that may be utilized toremotely control a plurality or other devices such as a TV, DVD, CD,Stereo, display monitor, or a combination thereof. Most access devicescurrently have an IR transmitter, which may be adapted to communicatewith other IR receiver devices.

The access device may be used for wireless communication and forremotely controlling an electronic device with as a TV, CD/DVDrecorder/player, or other device. The access device may also include atleast one soft-button that may be enabled through the gateway 118 andmay be utilized to control any other device that may be coupled to thegateway 118.

The gateway 118 is adapted to virtually aggregate data that may bevisible from a plurality of access devices or other network devices.Although the gateway 118 may be adapted to store some service andcontent related information, the gateway 118 does not actually storecopies of data that resides the access devices and/or other networkdevices that may be wired or wirelessly coupled to it. However, thegateway 118 may store, for example, metadata information that may beutilized to locate and access the information stored on the accessdevices and/or other network devices. The gateway is therefore adaptedto function as a registrar of both service and content relatedinformation.

Whenever an access device registers with and/or is authenticated by thegateway 118, information may be collected from the access device andrelated metadata information may be updated and/or synchronized withinformation that may be currently stored on the gateway 118.Additionally, when a device is no longer being serviced by the gateway118, associated information may be released from the gateway 118. Inthis regard, the virtual aggregations function performed by the gateway118 guarantees that the most current information is accessible from theaccess devices.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrating an exemplary communicationsystem 100, in accordance with a representative embodiment of thepresent invention. The communication system 100 shown in FIG. 2comprises a wireless interface 120, a gateway (GW) 118 with a modem 116,and an array of access devices such as, for example, a printer 103, astereo receiver 105, a laptop 117, a wireless personal digital assistant(PDA) 119, and a digital video camera 121, at location 102. Thecommunication system 100 of FIG. 2 also comprises an access device 124that may correspond, for example, to the access devices 122, 124, 126 ofFIG. 1. A second location 104 within communication system 100 comprisesa router 130 with a modem 132, and a plurality of wireless accessdevices. The plurality of access devices at the second location 104 may,for example, comprise a personal computer (PC) 138, a laptop 136, and awireless personal digital assistant (PDA) 134. A peripheral such as, forexample, a digital camera 142 may be coupled to the personal computer138. Other peripherals such as, for example, printers, digital scanners,speakers, and the like, that are not shown in FIG. 2, may also becoupled to the personal computer 138 and/or laptop 136. The wirelessinterface 120 may comprise a plurality of interfaces such as, forexample, a Bluetooth interface, a cellular interface, and anycombination of an IEEE 802.11a, b, g, and/or n interface, and/or an IEEE802.15.3a ultra-wideband interface. Although the following discussionrefers frequently to the capabilities and actions of the gateway 118 andwireless interface 120, the same may be said of the router 130 with themodem 132 of FIGS. 1 and 2, for example, without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention.

In accordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention,a wireless access device such as access device 124 may be mobile, andmay move between the personal area network/wireless local area networkcoverage provided by wireless interface 120 at location 102, the widearea network coverage provided by, for example, GSM network 114, and thecoverage provided by the router 130 and modem 132 at location 104. Thelocation 102 may, for example, be the home of the user of the accessdevice 124, the home of a friend or relative of the user of accessdevice 124, or an office, business, etc., where the user of accessdevice 124 may travel. The location 104 may, for example, be a secondhome of the user of access device 124, the home of a friend or relative,an office, or may have no personal or business relationship with theuser of access device 124. In a representative embodiment of the presentinvention, the gateway 118 may comprise, for example, a set top box thatmay be coupled in a wireless or wired fashion to access devices such as,for example, a laptop computer or television, such as the laptop 117 andthe television 115 of FIG. 2. Access to the communication bandwidth of abroadband network as previously described may be provided by the gateway118 and the modem 116 to wired or wireless access devices in thevicinity of location 102, and via router 130 and modem 132 to wired orwireless access devices in the vicinity of location 104, as shown inFIG. 2. This architecture may provide extended access to wirelessnetworks such as, for example, the GSM network 114, CDMA network 112,other cellular/PCS service provider 146, Internet 140 and publicswitched telephone network 108, of FIG. 1. The modem 116 is shownconnected to a broadband access provider (BAP) 106 via a broadbandconnection 107. The broadband connection 107 may comprise, for example,a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection, a cable network connection,a satellite connection, a T1 or T3 network connection, or similarbroadband communication link. The modem 116 is compatible with thebroadband connection 107, and may be, for example, a DSL modem, aDOCSIS-compliant cable modem, a satellite service modem, or T1 or T3compatible modem-type device. The broadband connection may provideaccess through BAP 106 to location 104, and via transport network 110to, for example, GSM network 114.

In the example illustration of FIG. 2, a user of the access device 124may or may not be engaged in communication with another system orsubscriber accessible via the GSM network 114, or other wide areanetwork of FIG. 1. Although the present example of FIG. 2 shows a GSMnetwork 114, a representative embodiment of the present invention may beemployed with respect to other wide area networks such as, for example,the CDMA network 112 and other cellular/PCS service provider 146, shownin FIG. 1.

When an access device such as, for example, the access device 124 ofFIG. 2 moves into the coverage area of a personal area network of, forexample, the wireless interface 120 and gateway 118, or the router 130,the access device 124 may be authenticated by the gateway 118 or router130. The authentication may involve the sharing or exchange ofidentification and/or authentication information by the access device124 with the gateway 118 or router 130. Details of an example of such aninteraction are provided in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/039,020,entitled “Method And System For Providing Registration, Authentication,And Access Via A Broadband Access Gateway”, filed Jan. 18, 2005, thecomplete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, in its entirety. Once the access device 124 has beenauthenticated to the gateway 118, the access device 124 may be permittedto exchange multimedia information and services available via the accessdevices in communication with the gateway 118, or via networks connectedto the gateway 118. Information about the available multimediainformation and services may be shared by and/or with the access device124 via information exchanged by the access device 124 and the gateway118 or router 130. Additional information about the advertising of suchinformation may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/021,294,entitled “Method And System For Extended Network Access ServicesAdvertising Via A Broadband Access Gateway”, filed Dec. 23, 2004, thecomplete subject matter of which is hereby incorporated herein byreference, in its entirety.

In a representative embodiment in accordance with the present invention,an access device such as, for example, access device 124 of FIG. 2 maybeengaged in accessing or consuming multimedia information via, forexample, the GSM system 114. The term “consuming” is used herein torepresent operations such as, for example, viewing video or stillpictures, playing audio or music, reading text, etc. The quality of aviewing or listening experience, sometimes referred to by the term“quality of service” (QoS), is dependent upon a number of factors orcriteria including, for example, the bandwidth that is available in thepathway from the multimedia information source to the access device atwhich consumption occurs. Other criteria affecting quality of servicemay include, for example, spatial resolution, color depth, frame rate,frequency of dropped frames, distortion in an audio signal, andacceptable delivery delay. For streaming video, the bandwidth needed tosupport such consumption depends upon a number of factors such as, forexample, the number of pixels in each frame of video displayed, thenumber of bits per pixel, the number of frames displayed each second,the method of video encoding used, and the communication protocol usedto transfer the multimedia information, to name only a few. Forreal-time audio playback, the bandwidth required may be a factor of, forexample, the number of audio samples per second of playback, the numberof bits per sample, the number of channels of audio being consumed(e.g., 1 for monaural, 2 for stereo, etc.), the type of coding used, andthe communications protocols used to transport the multimediainformation, in addition to other factors.

In a communication system such as, for example, the exemplarycommunication system 100 of FIG. 2, the bandwidth available for theexchange of multimedia information may be a function of the pathwayused. Referring to FIG. 2, depending upon its physical location, anaccess device such as, for example, access device 124 may be served in awireless fashion via the GSM network 114, or in a wired or wirelessfashion via the gateway 118 or the router 130. The bandwidth availablewhen being served by the gateway 118 may be greater or less than thebandwidth available when being served by the GSM network 114. Thebandwidth available to a user of a communication access means such as,for example, the gateway 118 and GSM network 114 depends upon a numberof factors. These factors may include, for example, the total capacityof the communication path, and the capacity currently being consumed byusers, to name only two.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a user maydesire to set a quality of service criterion defining the maximumbandwidth used. This may be due to a desire to limit usage costs, forexample. The user may therefore set bandwidth limits, that may beenforced when an access device is being served by a particular deliverymeans. For example, a user may determine that the cost of datatransmission via the GSM network 114 is unacceptable at bit rates ofgreater than 128 kbps. The user may provide cost of use or bandwidthcriteria to a broadband access gateway in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention such as, for example,the gateway 118 of FIG. 2. Consistent with such user-defined parameter,the gateway 118 may coordinate with the GSM network 114 in order thatwhen an access device being served by the gateway 118 such as, forexample, the access device 124 is handed over to the GSM network 114,the bandwidth consumed does not exceed 128 kbps. The gateway 118 may,for example, coordinate such a transition with a central control andmanagement function such as, for example, the central control andmanagement block 148, and the GSM network 114 of FIG. 2. Although thepresent discussion makes reference to a GSM network, an embodiment ofthe present invention is not limited in this regard. Other wired andwireless networks may be employed, including but not limited to thoseshown in FIGS. 1 and 2, without departing from the spirit of the presentinvention.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a stream ofmultimedia information may be transcoded from a first bit rate to asecond bit rate, to adjust bandwidth usage or to accommodate thecapabilities of an access device. The term “transcode” is used herein torepresent the modification of a bit rate of a coded stream of data. Forexample, multimedia information being delivered to the access device 124by gateway 118 at a bit rate of, for example, 384 kbps, may betranscoded for consumption at a bit rate of, for example, 128 kbps fordelivery via the GSM network 114. In a representative embodiment of thepresent invention, the bit rate available to support the consumption ofmultimedia information by the user of the access device 124 may beincreased when the user moves from a path capable of lower bit ratecommunication such as, for example, the GSM network 114, intocommunication with a higher bit rate path such as, for example, thegateway 118. For example, the access device 124 of the above discussionmay move from the coverage area of the gateway 118, into communicationwith the GSM network 114, and return to the coverage area of the gateway118. In this example, the gateway 118 may coordinate with the GSMnetwork 114, the central control and management block 148, and theaccess device 124 to transition the access device 124 from multimediaaccess using the 384 kbps capability of the gateway 118, to the 128 kbpsconnection with GSM network 114, and back to the 384 kbps capability ofthe gateway 118. Depending upon the bandwidth for which the multimediainformation being accessed was encoded, the gateway 118 may adapt themultimedia information to a different bit rate using, for example,transcoding to a different bit rate code, or compression, to reduce thebandwidth to that available. The adjustment or adaptation of these twoparameters of the multimedia information may be automatic, based uponthe quality of service criteria defined by the user.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a portion of the communication system 100of FIG. 2, showing an exemplary broadband access gateway 118 supportinguser-defined quality of service criteria, that may correspond, forexample, to the gateway 118 of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. The broadband accessgateway 118 of FIG. 3 is communicatively coupled to a wireless interface120 that may correspond, for example, to the wireless interface 120 ofFIGS. 1 and 2. The wireless interface 120 may permit the gateway 118 tocommunicate with wireless access devices such as, for example, theaccess device 124 that may be within the coverage area of the gateway118. Such wireless access devices may include, for example, audioequipment such as a stereo receiver, speakers, printers, laptopcomputers, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), digitalscanners, digital video cameras, mobile multimedia handsets, pointingdevices, and the like. The gateway 118 of FIG. 3 is also communicativelycoupled to a modem 116 supporting communication via the broadbandconnection 107. The modem 116 and the broadband connection 107 maycorrespond, for example, to the modem 116 and the broadband connection107 of FIGS. 1 and 2. The gateway 118 of FIG. 3 comprises a processor151 communicatively coupled to the wireless interface 120, the laptop117, and the modem 116, and a set of user-defined quality of servicecriteria 152. The user-defined quality of service criteria 152 comprisesa set of parameters or characteristics that define for a user or accessdevice, the criteria or parameters used in managing the quality ofservice provided to the user. The access device 124 and laptop 117laptop of FIG. 3 are shown as having local access to user-definedquality of service criteria 155, 157.

To illustrate with another example, a user may desire to have theoptimum quality of service when viewing certain multimedia information,without regard to cost of consumption. For example, a radiologist mayalways wish to receive image information from a hospital as quickly aspossible, and at the highest resolution possible, without concern forcost. In this example, the identity or source of the multimediainformation to be consumed may be considered in determining the qualityof service to be provided. The same radiologist, while accessing audionews materials, however, may wish to apply criteria limiting cost andallowing quality reductions or delays in delivery to be imposed. Basedupon the location, source, or origin of the multimedia information, thequality of service criteria may be different. For a user requesting astill image, it may be of greater importance to receive a complete imagequickly, than to receive a high resolution image. In such a situation,the user-defined quality of service criteria may permit adjustment ofthe spatial resolution of the image, the color depth, or the number oflevels of gray scale used to permit the exchange of the image withincriteria set by a user. Possible criteria include, for example, deliverydelay or transfer time, the cost of delivery, and the desired quality ofthe image (e.g., spatial resolution, color depth, levels of gray scale),to name only a few. As discussed above, for some users the length oftime taken to deliver a high resolution image may be of lesserimportance, and that particular user may elect to wait for thefull-resolution image.

At any point in time, a broadband access gateway such as, for example,gateway 118 may not be capable of supporting the quality of servicedesired by a user. This may be due, for example, to consumption ofbandwidth by other access devices communicating with the gateway 118, orto the current bandwidth limitations of a network such as, for example,the communications network accessible via the broadband connection 107.The impact on the quality of service provided by gateway 118, due toloading on the broadband connection 107 or interconnected network mayoccur, for example, when the multimedia information being accessed islocated not on an access device within the coverage area of the gateway118, but at a source accessible via the broadband connection 107. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, a broadband accessgateway such as, for example the gateway 118 or the router 130 maydynamically adjust, for example, the bit rate or level of compressionused in the delivery of multimedia information, based upon a number ofparameters.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a broadbandaccess gateway such as, for example the gateway 118 or the router 130may determine that the bandwidth needed to meet the quality of servicecriteria defined by a user may not be available, and may notify the userof that fact. For example, the gateway 118 of FIG. 2 may determine thatdelivery of a full motion video clip cannot be accomplished within thequality of service criteria set by the user. The gateway 118 mayautomatically identify adjustments in, for example, picture or soundquality, that enable the gateway to deliver the requested video clipwithin the quality of service criteria of the user. In anotherrepresentative embodiment of the present invention, the gateway 118 maydetermine that no combination of adjustments meet the user quality ofservice criteria. In such a situation, a broadband access gateway mayoffer to the user one or more choices. For example, the user may beoffered the options of an image of lower spatial resolution, the mutingof any accompanying audio, a reduction in the frame rate, or theomission of frames of video. That is, the gateway may allow the user tomake adjustments affecting quality of service, to enable the user toaccess the desired multimedia information with a quality of service thatis acceptable to the user. By allowing the user to select the form andlevel of any degradation that may occur, the user may optimize theirmultimedia access experience, and permit multimedia access that mayotherwise be restricted. A broadband access gateway in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may learn from pastuser selections the most likely future user choice of systemadjustments. The user may also be given a choice to override theirpreviously defined criteria. For example, a user may be permitted toincrease the permissible cost of the delivery, or decrease, for example,a frame rate of playback of a video clip. In a representative embodimentof the present invention, a user of an access device may select lowerquality audio when the desire to have access to a particular audioprogram is high. A broadband access gateway in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may identify andoffer to a user a variety of delivery options, to enable a user toselect a quality of service that best suits their needs.

A broadband access gateway in accordance with a representativeembodiment of the present invention such as, for example, the gateway118 may automatically modify, for example, the encoded bit rate orcompression factor of multimedia information being transported, in orderto enable an access device such as, for example, the access device 124of FIG. 2 to provide a satisfactory multimedia consumption experience.For example, a user of an access device such as, for example, the accessdevice 124 or the wireless PDA 119 of FIG. 2 may wish to play a musicfile encoded at a bit rate of 384 kilobits per second (kbps) using theMP3 encoding scheme, while in the coverage area of the gateway 118. ABluetooth radio frequency link having a current bandwidth limit of 128kbps may enable communication with the gateway 118. In order to supportthe consumption of the 384 kbps-encoded MP3 music information via the128 kbps Bluetooth link, the gateway 118 may reduce the requiredbandwidth by transcoding the digital music information to the lower bitrate.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, if thecompression used to permit the consumption of a particular form ofmultimedia information is not “lossless”, and causes a reduction in thequality of the images or the sound reproduced, a broadband accessgateway in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention may reduce the level of compression, or eliminate the use ofcompression altogether, depending upon the user-defined quality ofservice criteria, and the bandwidth available in the path to theconsumer.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a broadbandaccess gateway such as, for example, the gateway 118 or router 130, maydetermine the available bandwidth available upon receiving a request forplayback of an audio or video clip. The broadband access gateway mayattempt to retrieve a version of the requested multimedia informationencoded for transmission at or below the available bandwidth. Forexample, many protocol standards used for the exchange of audio andvideo support the encoding of multimedia information specifically fortransmission via communications channels having minimum expectedbandwidths. An embodiment of the present invention may seek a version ofthe requested subject matter that has been encoded for transmission viaa channel using the bandwidth that is currently available, or that meetsthe user-defined quality of service criteria.

FIG. 4 shows exemplary quality of service setup information within adisplay area 420 of an access device that may correspond, for example,to the access device 124 or the wireless PDA 119 of FIGS. 1 and 2, inaccordance with a representative embodiment of the present invention.The display 400 of FIG. 4 comprises a network indicator 410, a networkservices indicator area 412, a battery life indicator, a time of dayindicator, and a day and date indicator. The display 400 also comprisesa display area 420 to allow an access device to present graphical ortextual information for a variety of reasons and from a number ofsources. The network services indicator area 412 in the example of FIG.4 shows an Internet protocol (IP) phone service icon 415, a printerservice icon 416, a stereo entertainment icon 417, a pay music serviceicon 418, and a video entertainment icon 419. The display area 420 ofFIG. 4 has been arranged in a tabular format comprising a criterioncolumn 435, a priority column 436, and a value column 437. The displayarea 420 shows three user-defined quality of service criteria entries431, 432, 433 that indicate the relative importance or priority of threeaspects of multimedia consumption that define quality of service for theuser of the associated access device. As shown in FIG. 4, the user hasindicated in criteria entry 431 that “Delivery Cost” has a priority of“High”, and should be less than $0.04 per minute. The next criteriaentry 432 indicates that the user desires to have “Media Quality” as thenext in importance. For this user, the third criteria entry 433 showsthat “Access Delay” is the lowest priority when making adjustments forbandwidth limitation of the delivery path. Although the illustration ofFIG. 4 uses a tabular format, and textual indicators of only threeuser-defined quality of service criteria and associated priorities areshown, many other forms of user interface could be employed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present invention For example, the usermay be offered a graphical interface, priority may be indicated bynumeric value or size or design of an icon, and priority may beexpressed in the form of a comparative or logical relationship betweencriteria. The illustration of FIG. 4 is meant to act as an aid to theunderstanding of one possible embodiment of the present invention, anddoes not represent limitations of the present invention as other userinterfaces are contemplated.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, payment forservices such as those described above with respect to FIG. 4 may besubmitted in the form of, for example, a digital certificate that may beprovided to the user by another. For example, a user of an access devicemay be given access to various services by another subscriber, or by aprovider of services as a form of promotion, using electronic deliveryof a digital certificate allowing service access. Other users of accessdevices may render payment for services by registering for service andproviding billing particulars such as, for example, billing address,credit information, credit or debit card numbers, and the like, beforeor at the time that initial service access is attempted. Additionaldetails of registration of users for service access in a communicationsystem such as that shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 may be found in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/039,020, entitled “Method And System ForProviding Registration, Authentication, And Access Via A BroadbandAccess Gateway”, filed Jan. 18, 2005, the complete subject matter ofwhich is hereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety.

FIG. 5 shows an exemplary pop-up message 522 in the display area 520 ofan access device that may correspond, for example, to the access device124 or wireless PDA 119 of FIGS. 1 and 2, in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention. The display 500 ofFIG. 5 comprises a network indicator 510, a network services indicatorarea 512, a battery life indicator, a time of day indicator, and a dayand date indicator. The display 500 also comprises a display area 520 toallow an access device to present graphical or textual information for avariety of reasons and from a number of sources. The network servicesindicator area 512 in the example of FIG. 5 shows an Internet protocol(IP) phone service icon 515, a printer service icon 516, a stereoentertainment icon 517, a pay music service icon 518, and a videoentertainment icon 519. The display area 520 of FIG. 5 illustrates apop-up message 522 notifying the user of the access device that arequest for access to, for example, video multimedia informationrequires the use of more network capacity than is currently available tothe user under the current set of user-defined quality of servicecriteria. In the illustration of FIG. 5, the user-defined quality ofservice criteria may correspond, for example, to the user-definedquality of service criteria shown in FIG. 4. In a representativeembodiment of the present invention, a user in such a situation may, forexample, be offered an opportunity to override one of the pre-definedquality of service criteria, by authorizing an increase in the cost ofthe bandwidth needed for multimedia consumption. Such an option is shownin FIG. 5 as item 533. The user of the access device may select item 533by clicking on button 531. The user may also be offered the option ofviewing a lower-quality version of the requested multimedia item. Suchan option is shown in FIG. 5 as item 534. The user of the access devicemay select item 534 by clicking on button 532. Various representativeembodiments of the present invention may offer options such as thoseshown in FIG. 5, to permit a user to temporarily re-define the qualityof service criteria. The use of a pop-up message 522 is one example of amechanism by which the user of the access device may be notified. Othermethods include, for example, the playing of an audio signal, orplayback of a voice message. By presenting the user with an opportunityto select the form of an adjustment in system behavior, a representativeembodiment of the present invention provides flexibility when user needsor network conditions change.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart 600 of an exemplary method of supportinglocation-based quality of service in a broadband access gateway that maycorrespond, for example, to the gateway 118 or the router 130 of FIGS. 1and 2, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention. The method of FIG. 6 begins (block 610) when a broadbandaccess gateway such as, for example, the gateway 118 or router 130 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 is powered up. At some later point in time, the gatewaymay receive, from an access device, information identifying the accessdevice and/or the user of the access device (block 612). Informationidentifying an access device may include, for example, an electronicserial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a media access control(MAC) address, information identifying a make of an access device, andinformation identifying a model of an access device. Informationidentifying the user of an access device may comprise, for example, amember identifier, a user name, an administrative identifier, and acredit card number. The identification information may, for example, beprovided by an access device upon entry into a coverage area of agateway, or periodically when in communication with a gateway. Later,the gateway 118 may receive a request for multimedia information suchas, for example, a video or audio clip (block 614). As described above,the requested multimedia information may be encoded for transmission viaa pathway having at least a predefined amount of bandwidth available.The broadband access gateway may then identify a set of quality ofservice criteria that are applicable to the request, using the receivedidentification information (block 616). A check is then made whether thequality of service criteria are currently met for delivery of themultimedia information (block 618). If the criteria are met, themultimedia information may be transferred to the access device (block622), and the method is complete (block 624). If, however, the criteriaare currently not met (block 618), the broadband access gateway may makeadjustments in gateway operation and/or may coordinate adjustments toparameters of network operation consistent with the user-definedcriteria (block 620). Such adjustments may include, for example, theadaptation of the bit rate in which the multimedia information to theavailable network bandwidth, adjustments to levels of compression used,and to selection of an alternate, lower bit-rate version of therequested multimedia information. The multimedia information may then betransferred to the access device (block 622), and the method iscompleted (block 624).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart 700 of another exemplary method of supportinglocation-based quality of service in a broadband access gateway that maycorrespond, for example, to the gateway 118 or the router 130 of FIGS. 1and 2, in accordance with a representative embodiment of the presentinvention. The method of FIG. 7 begins (block 710) when a broadbandaccess gateway such as, for example, the gateway 118 or router 130 ofFIGS. 1 and 2 is powered up. Later, the gateway receives identificationinformation from an access device such as, for example, the accessdevice 124, laptop 117, or wireless PDA 119 of FIG. 2 (block 712). Theidentification information may be received from an access device when itenters the coverage area of a gateway, or periodically while the accessdevice is in communication with a gateway. Some time later, the gateway118 may receive a request for multimedia information (block 714). Therequested multimedia information may comprise, for example, a segment ofstreaming (i.e., real time) video or audio. As previous described, therequested multimedia information may be encoded for transmission via apathway having at least a predefined amount of bandwidth available. Thebroadband access gateway may then identify any quality of servicecriteria that are applicable to the request, based upon theidentification information previously received (block 716). Adetermination is then made as to whether the quality of service criteriaare currently met for transfer of the multimedia information to thelocation of the access device (block 718). If the criteria are met, themultimedia information may be transferred to the access device (block726), and the method is completed (block 728). If, however, the criteriacannot currently be met (block 718), the broadband access gateway maynotify the user of the access device of a quality of service issue, andmay offer alternatives or options regarding adjustment of systemoperation (block 720) An example of such a notification using a pop-upmessage is discussed above with respect to FIG. 5. Upon receiving thenotification, the user may select one or more of the offered servicealternatives or options (block 722), and the gateway may makeadjustments in gateway operation and/or may coordinate adjustments innetwork operation consistent with the user-defined quality of servicecriteria (block 724). Such adjustments may include, for example, theadaptation of the bit rate in which the multimedia information to theavailable network bandwidth, adjustments to levels of compression used,and to selection of an alternate, lower bit-rate version of therequested multimedia information. The multimedia information may then betransferred to the access device (block 726), and the method of theillustration is complete (block 728).

Although the methods illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7 are shown as beingperformed as a single pass or event, a representative embodiment of thepresent invention may loop, to repeat the check of conditions affectingaccess to the requested multimedia information, to insure that thedesired quality of service is met. As discussed above, movement of anaccess device may change its location sufficiently to cause a change inthe communication pathway used for access to multimedia information. Aschanges in the communications pathway occur, increase and decreases inthe available network capacity may occur, impacting the ability of thenetwork to deliver the desired level of service. By repeatedlyevaluating whether the quality of service desired by the consumer can bemet and by adjusting system behavior, a broadband access gateway inaccordance with a representative embodiment of the present inventionmaximizes the quality of service experienced by the user.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, the wirelesslocal area networks may include data networks such as, for example,Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g/ncompliant wireless networks such as those located in homes, hot spots oran office. Such local area networks may operate in unlicensed radiofrequency spectrum such as in, for example, the 2.4 and 5 gigahertzregions. Examples of wide area networks may include cellular digitalpacket data (CDPD), voice and data networks such as public switchedtelephone networks (PSTN), Global System For Mobile Communication (GSM),GSM General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), GSM Short Message Service(SMS), GSM Enhanced Data Rates For Global Evolution (EDGE), NorthAmerican Time Division Multiplex Access (TDMA), iDEN, Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA) and CDMA2000 1xRT, Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) network, to name only a few.

A personal area network (PAN) may be formed by a plurality of wirelesscommunication access devices such as, for example, mobile multimediahandsets, PDAs, telephones, and computers. Other elements of such anetwork may, for example, include computer peripherals such as digitalscanners, digital cameras, printers, headphones, and pointing devices,that may be located within the immediate proximity of a person. A PANmay be an ad-hoc network of such communication devices. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, access deviceswithin the PAN may communicate with other access devices within the PANand also with other access devices that are located in other networksaccessible via the PAN. The personal area networks may include datanetworks such as, for example, a Bluetooth compliant network, andInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer (IEEE) 802.15.3acompliant wireless networks. Such personal area networks may operate inunlicensed radio frequency spectrum such as, for example, the 2.4 and 5gigahertz regions. Details of one example of a personal area network areprovided in the document “Bluetooth Core Specification V1.2”, Nov. 5,2003, from Bluetooth SIG, Inc., the complete subject matter of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference, in its entirety. For example,in a Bluetooth® wireless PAN, a first Bluetooth®-enabled wireless accessdevice may communicate with a second Bluetooth®-enabled wireless accessdevice within the PAN. Additionally, either of the first and secondBluetooth®-enabled wireless access devices may communicate with theInternet or another LAN or WAN via the Bluetooth® wireless PAN.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, a gateway maybe adapted to provide seamless and transparent communication between aplurality of access devices and a plurality of networks. Thefunctionality of the gateway may be divided, for example, intoapplication content functionality, and configuration and managementfunctionality. The application content functionality may, for example,deal with the types of applications that may be supported by the gatewayas well as the various types of data that may be received, processedand/or transmitted by the gateway. In this regard, application contentfunctionality may also include the manner in which other devices and/orsystems may utilize data from the gateway.

Content and application services are important because all theinformation coming into and leaving the home from either the WAN side(i.e., the broadband connection side), or from the PAN side (i.e., theaccess device side) converges at the gateway. The PAN side may compriseBluetooth, wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n), IEEE 802.15.3aultra-wideband, or cellular, for example. Notwithstanding, the gatewaymay be adapted to convert, for example, wirelessly receivedGSM-formatted information into, for example, Internet protocol(IP)-formatted information and in reverse, converts IP-formattedinformation into wireless GSM-formatted information suitable forover-the-air transmission. Support for other wireless communicationprotocols such as TDMA, CDMA, and UMTS may also be provided. In arepresentative embodiment of the present invention, the gateway maycomprise suitable circuitry, logic and/or code that may be adapted toreceive and process MPEG related data, which may be suitable for displayon a screen. The gateway in an embodiment of the present inventionfunctions as a focal point where data converges from a plurality ofwired and wireless services. Although, in a particular embodiment of thepresent invention the gateway may do very little in terms of actualcontent aggregation, there is virtual aggregation of data. The convergeddata may be integrated and or otherwise utilized to offer uniqueopportunities for launching various content and application servicesfrom a single strategic location. Since the gateway in an embodiment ofthe present invention is the focal point where data converges, one ormore protocol stacks may be employed for launching the various contentand application services.

The gateway in a representative embodiment of the present invention maybe adapted to route calls based on established rules that may beprogrammed into the gateway. For example, the gateway may be governed bya rule which states that local calls are to be routed to an incumbentlocal exchange carrier (iLEC), while long distance calls are to behandled by Long Distance Carrier Company. Accordingly, when a calloriginates at the gateway and it is determined that the call is a localcall, the gateway may be adapted to route the call to the iLEC. However,if the gateway determines that the call is a long distance call, thenthe gateway may be adapted to route the call to Long Distance CarrierCompany.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may leverageexisting broadband infrastructure that is commonly found in many homesand businesses today. Because a consumer is already paying for the useof the broadband infrastructure in their home or office, leveraging theuse of the existing broadband infrastructure for communication with widearea networks results in minimal or no communication costs. Thebroadband infrastructure may be, for example, a cable or DSLinfrastructure.

The wireless interface function provided by the gateway located within ahome, for example, may be utilized to route or communicate a great dealof traffic to a wired network such as a broadband network or a wirelessnetwork such as a GSM or CDMA network via a broadband connection. Inother words, the wireless gateway infrastructure provided by arepresentative embodiment of the present invention provides a scalablenetwork infrastructure that rides on an existing access infrastructurealready supplied by a broadband service provider to a home, office orbusiness. Additionally, the scalable infrastructure provided by thegateway also solves the problems associated with signal penetration andpropagation, thereby providing improved quality of service (QoS). From amarket perspective, a wireless service provider may now have access tothe necessary infrastructure to provide improved wireless services tousers within a home or office. Accordingly, in order to rapidly increasetheir growth, wireless service providers may now target that portion ofthe in-home landline or plain old telephone system (POTS) business,which have traditionally been handled by incumbent local exchangecarriers (ILECs) or other LECs.

The unlicensed mobile access gateway described above may possess asignificant amount of processing power. The gateways of existing systemsfall short of realizing the full potential of the merged wired andwireless communication network that is enabled by a representativeembodiment of the present invention. Numerous basic and enhancedcommunication services may be enabled or provided by the gateway.Support for access devices such as, for example, mobile multimediahandsets and PDAs may be involved in order to utilize these basic andenhanced communication services enabled by the new wave of digitaltechnologies. Current and/or proposed mobile access gateway systems,however, do not provide the range of support needed for their use by theeveryday consumer.

Aspects of the present invention may be seen in a system supportingaccess to multimedia information by a plurality of access devices usinglocation-aware quality of service management. Such a system may comprisea gateway communicatively coupled to a broadband network and at leastone wireless interface. The gateway may be capable of selectivelyexchanging multimedia information among the at least one wirelessinterface and the broadband network, and of communicating with theplurality of access devices via the at least one wireless interface. Ina representative embodiment of the present invention, the gateway may becapable of receiving from at least one of the plurality of accessdevices, at least one of information identifying an access device andinformation identifying a user. The gateway may also be capable ofaccessing at least one user-defined quality of service criterion basedupon the at least one of information identifying an access device andinformation identifying a user. In addition, the gateway may be capableof accepting a request for delivery of identified multimediainformation, and of adjusting at least one parameter of the identifiedmultimedia information based on the at least one user-defined quality ofservice criterion, to enable delivery.

In various representative embodiments in accordance with the presentinvention, multimedia information may comprise at least one of streamingvideo, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitized audio,digitized still images, digitized video, and digitized music. The atleast one user-defined quality of service criterion may comprise one ofa bit rate, a bandwidth, a spatial resolution, a measure of gray scalelevels, a color depth, a frame rate, a measure of dropped frames, a costof usage, a measure of distortion of an audio signal, and a deliverydelay. The at least one wireless interface may be compliant with theBluetooth V1.2 or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification.The at least one wireless interface may communicate using an unlicensedfrequency band, and may communicate at a frequency of approximately 2.4gigahertz. In addition, the at least one wireless interface may becompliant with at least one of the Institute of Electrical andElectronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11nstandards. The broadband network may comprise at least one of a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, acellular network, and the Internet. The cellular network may comprise atleast one of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, atime division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multipleaccess (CDMA) network, and a universal mobile telecommunications system(UMTS) network.

In a representative embodiment of the present invention, the informationidentifying a user may comprise at least one of a member identifier, auser name, an administrative identifier, and a credit card number. Theinformation identifying an access device may comprise at least one of anelectronic serial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address, a mediaaccess control (MAC) address, information identifying a make of anaccess device, and information identifying a model of an access device.The plurality of access devices may comprise at least one of a mobilemultimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personalcomputer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer,headphones, and a pointing device. A system in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may be capable ofdelivering the identified multimedia information to the at least one ofthe plurality of access devices, and may be capable of notifying the atleast one of the plurality of access devices of an inability to deliverthe identified multimedia information based upon the at least oneuser-defined quality of service criterion. The at least one user-definedquality of service criterion may be sent to the gateway by the at leastone of the plurality of access devices, and the at least one parametermay comprise one of a bit rate and a level of compression.

Further aspects of the present invention may be found in a methodsupporting access to multimedia information by a plurality of accessdevices using location-aware quality of service management. Such amethod may comprise receiving from at least one of the plurality ofaccess devices via a wireless network, at least one of informationidentifying an access device and information identifying a user, andaccessing at least one user-defined quality of service criterion basedupon the at least one of information identifying an access device andinformation identifying a user. The method may also comprise accepting arequest for delivery of identified multimedia information, and adjustingat least one parameter of the identified multimedia information based onthe at least one user-defined quality of service criterion, to enabledelivery of the identified multimedia information via the wirelessnetwork. The multimedia information may comprise at least one ofstreaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text, digitizedaudio, digitized still images, digitized video, and digitized music. Invarious representative embodiments of the present invention, the atleast one user-defined quality of service criterion may comprise one ofa bit rate, a bandwidth, a spatial resolution, a measure of gray scalelevels, a color depth, a frame rate, a measure of dropped frames, a costof usage, a measure of distortion of an audio signal, and a deliverydelay.

In a representative embodiment in accordance with the present invention,the wireless network may be compliant with the Bluetooth V1.2 orcompatible personal area network (PAN) specification. The wirelessnetwork may communicate using an unlicensed frequency band, and maycommunicate at a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz. In addition,the wireless network may be compliant with at least one of the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a, 802.11b,802.11g, and 802.11n standards. A method in accordance with arepresentative embodiment of the present invention may also comprisetransferring the identified multimedia information from a broadbandnetwork. The broadband network may comprise at least one of a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, acellular network, and the Internet. The cellular network in variousrepresentative embodiments of the present invention may comprise atleast one of a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, atime division multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multipleaccess (CDMA) network, and a universal mobile telecommunications system(UMTS) network. The information identifying a user may comprise at leastone of a member identifier, a user name, an administrative identifier,and a credit card number. The information identifying an access devicemay comprise at least one of an electronic serial number, an Internetprotocol (IP) address, a media access control (MAC) address, informationidentifying a make of an access device, and information identifying amodel of an access device. The plurality of access devices may compriseat least one of a mobile multimedia handset, a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a digital scanner, a digitalcamera, a printer, headphones, and a pointing device.

A representative embodiment of the present invention may also comprisedelivering the identified multimedia information to the at least one ofthe plurality of access devices, and notifying the at least one of theplurality of access devices of an inability to deliver the identifiedmultimedia information based upon the at least one user-defined qualityof service criterion. The at least one user-defined quality of servicecriterion may be sent to the gateway by the at least one of theplurality of access devices, and the at least one parameter may compriseone of a bit rate and a level of compression.

Yet other aspects of the present invention may be observed in amachine-readable storage, having stored thereon a computer programhaving a plurality of code sections executable by a machine, for causingthe machine to perform the operations of the method described above.

Accordingly, the present invention may be realized in hardware,software, or a combination of hardware and software. The presentinvention may be realized in a centralized fashion in at least onecomputer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elementsare spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind ofcomputer system or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methodsdescribed herein is suited. A typical combination of hardware andsoftware may be a general-purpose computer system with a computerprogram that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computersystem such that it carries out the methods described herein.

The present invention may also be embedded in a computer programproduct, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation ofthe methods described herein, and which when loaded in a computer systemis able to carry out these methods. Computer program in the presentcontext means any expression, in any language, code or notation, of aset of instructions intended to cause a system having an informationprocessing capability to perform a particular function either directlyor after either or both of the following: a) conversion to anotherlanguage, code or notation; b) reproduction in a different materialform.

While the present invention has been described with reference to certainembodiments, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention. In addition, manymodifications may be made to adapt a particular situation or material tothe teachings of the present invention without departing from its scope.Therefore, it is intended that the present invention not be limited tothe particular embodiment disclosed, but that the present invention willinclude all embodiments falling within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. One or more circuits supporting access tomultimedia information by an access device, using location-aware qualityof service management in a communication network, the one or morecircuits comprising: at least one processor operatively coupled tointerface circuitry for communicating over the communication network,the at least one processor operable to, at least: receive informationidentifying one or both of the access device and a user; determine anapproximate current location of the access device; access at least oneuser-defined quality of service criterion based upon the informationidentifying one or both of an access device and a user; accept a requestfor delivery of identified multimedia information; using the approximatecurrent location of the access device, determine a first availablebandwidth at the approximate current location of the access device;adjust at least one parameter of the identified multimedia informationto conform to the first available bandwidth at the approximate currentlocation of the access device and to conform to the at least oneuser-defined quality of service criterion to provide a first quality ofservice level upon delivery of the identified multimedia information tothe user; subsequently, following a location change of the access devicein the communication network, determine a new location of the accessdevice; determine a second available bandwidth at the new location ofthe access device, the second available bandwidth being different fromthe first available bandwidth; and adjust the at least one parameter ofthe identified multimedia information to conform to the second availablebandwidth and to the at least one user-defined quality of servicecriterion to provide a second quality of service level upon delivery ofthe identified multimedia information to the user that is different fromthe first quality of service level.
 2. The one or more circuitsaccording to claim 1, wherein multimedia information comprises one ormore of streaming video, broadcast video, voice, digital data, text,digitized audio, digitized still images, digitized video, and/ordigitized music.
 3. The one or more circuits according to claim 1,wherein the interface circuitry communicates wirelessly over thecommunication network using a protocol compliant with the BLUETOOTH V1.2or compatible personal area network (PAN) specification.
 4. The one ormore circuits according to claim 1, wherein the interface circuitrycommunicates wirelessly over the communication network using anunlicensed frequency band.
 5. The one or more circuits according toclaim 1, wherein the interface circuitry communicates wirelessly overthe communication network at a frequency of approximately 2.4 gigahertz.6. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the interfacecircuitry is compliant with one or more of the Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 a, 802.11 b, 802.11 g, and/or802.11 n standards.
 7. The one or more circuits according to claim 1,wherein the communication network comprises one or more of a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) network, a cable network, a satellite network, acellular network, and/or the Internet.
 8. The one or more circuitsaccording to claim 7, wherein the cellular network comprises one or moreof a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, a timedivision multiple access (TDMA) network, a code division multiple access(CDMA) network, and/or a universal mobile telecommunications system(UMTS) network.
 9. The one or more circuits according to claim 1,wherein the information identifying a user comprises one or more of amember identifier, a user name, an administrative identifier, and/or acredit card number.
 10. The one or more circuits according to claim 1,wherein the information identifying the access device comprises one ormore of an electronic serial number, an Internet protocol (IP) address,a media access control (MAC) address, information identifying a make ofthe access device, and/or information identifying a model of the accessdevice.
 11. The one or more circuits according to claim 1, wherein theat least one user-defined quality of service criterion comprises one ormore of a bit rate, a bandwidth, a spatial resolution, a measure of grayscale levels, a color depth, a frame rate, a measure of dropped frames,a cost of usage, a measure of distortion of an audio signal, and/or adelivery delay.
 12. The one or more circuits according to claim 1,wherein the access device comprises one of the following: a mobilemultimedia handset, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personalcomputer (PC), a digital scanner, a digital camera, a printer,headphones, or a pointing device.
 13. The one or more circuits accordingto claim 1, wherein the user is notified of an inability to deliver theidentified multimedia information to the user in accordance with the atleast one user-defined quality of service criterion.
 14. The one or morecircuits according to claim 1, wherein the user is permitted to selectone or both of a form and a level of degradation due to the adjustmentof the at least one parameter.
 15. The one or more circuits according toclaim 1, wherein the at least one user-defined quality of servicecriterion is transmitted to a gateway by the access device.
 16. The oneor more circuits according to claim 1, wherein the at least oneparameter comprises one of a bit rate and a level of compression. 17.The one or more circuits according to claim 1, where the multimediainformation comprises a real-time media stream.